Beautiful Assassin (8 page)

"Fuck, shit, fuck, fuck."

 
"Mouth what the
fuck? She'd scared me awake with her screaming, there were torn books and
magazines all over the place and her pillow was a feathery mess on the
floor. 

"What's gong on?"

"I can't do this shit, it's driving me fucking crazy."

"What's driving you crazy babe?"

"All this wedding shit, I'm buried under tulle and organza
and what the fuck...." 

"Buried, who's buried, who'd you ice now Mouth?" Why
that should cause crazy lady to try to brain me with a lamp is anybody's guess
but that's what I get for sleeping with a nut job.
    
 

"Nobody's been buried you ass, it's material, it's what they
make wedding dresses out of. I can't, I just....arrgggghhhhhhh....." I was
off the bed and pulling her into me before she could pull her hair out at the
roots.

"Stop baby, what's going on?" I tried talking over her
screams and pulling her hands out of her hair.

"Mommy, I want my mommy."

"What the fuck!" I took us both down to the floor when she
started shaking hard; I didn't know what was going on here but I knew it wasn't
good. My first instinct was to get my father here quick so I scooted over to
the nigh stand with her clutched in my arms and got my phone.

"Dad something's going on with Mouth...she just started
screaming and pulling her fucking hair now she's screaming for her mom but I'm
pretty sure her mom's dead."

"I'll be right there son just keep holding her." I hung
up the phone and wrapped both arms around her. 

"It's okay baby, help's on the way."

My spitfire girl curled into me and scared the fuck outta me.

"Mama, mama." She kept up a moaning chant for her mother
that broke my fucking heart; by the time dad arrived I was ready to throw
myself off the fucking roof.

"Let me have a look son."

I got up with her in my arms and laid her on the bed, dad checked
her over while I watched.

"I think she's in some kind of shock, what happened?"

"I don't know we were asleep and she woke me up with her
screams, the room was a mess and she was talking about the wedding and
screaming for her mother." Now I was the one pulling on my hair.

"Let her rest son, I'm going to give her something mild, we
have to think about the baby. Maybe with everything happening so fast and all
at once she's had some sort of break." Dad fussed around her for a bit
more before leaving me alone with her; I stood there and watched her chest rise
and fall with every breath my mind in a daze. What the fuck just happened?
Obviously it has something to do with her mother who come to think of it I
don't really know all that much about, all I know is that she's gone as in dead
but that's about it; somehow I always just assumed that she'd been sick, why I
never dug deeper I don't know I just never thought of it. It could be because Arianna
never made an issue of it, that was obviously a huge mistake on my part
something I was gonna have to get to the bottom of.

I was tempted to call her father and uncle but squashed the
impulse, I needed to be with her right now and I didn't need her overhearing
what I might have to say to those two fucks. I laid down next to her and eased
her into my arms, she drew in one long deep breath her lips moved into a Cupid
bow pout and she settled down again. My sweet baby, what the fuck had set her
off?
  
 
  
 

I needed to throw a punch but at what? There wasn't any physical
threat, according to dad something might've broke in her head how do I fight
that shit? I'm not going to get too worried about it, whatever it is I'm sure
we can beat it together I won't settle for anything less; besides she's too
fucking strong to lose her mind.

I can't even think about that shit right now, we have a baby
coming, a wedding to plan, the future to look forward to no way was I losing
her to whatever the fuck is in her head. 

I don't know how long we laid there with me tracking her
heartbeats, watching her face for any sign that she was in distress, but so far
she seemed okay, whatever dad had given her had calmed her down. I was a little
worried for my kid but there wasn't much I could do at this point other than
look after both of them. 

"Shane?"

"Yeah baby I'm right here how're you feeling?" I pulled
her up higher on my chest so I could see into her eyes; still a little clouded
over but my baby was in there.

"What happened?" She looked around at the room confused.

"Uh babe, do you remember anything from this morning?"
She looked a little lost there for a minute before rubbing her temple as if in
pain.

"I have a terrible headache but that's about it was I sick? I
feel like I was sick." 

Shit, dad didn't leave any instructions on how to handle these
kinds of questions, I mean am I supposed to tell her that she'd had a psychotic
break or some shit or play it off like it was nothing major? I'm not too
comfortable with the idea of lying to her so I went with the truth.

"You had a slight episode baby."

"Episode, what episode, what are you talking about?"

"Well I woke up to you screaming for your mom and tearing the
room apart."

"What, my mom, what about my......?" She clutched her
head as it fell to my chest; Fuck this shit, her body started trembling hard as
fuck so I wrapped us both up in the covers and held on tight, scared out of my
fucking mind again. When she started moaning and rocking back and forth on my
chest I felt tears in my eyes.

"No, no, no, no, no, come on baby come back." I kept
repeating that over and over again.

"I love you Mouth you hear me, I love you more than anything
in this world, do you know before I met you I never thought there was a woman
out there for me, never thought I'd find my perfect match but you're it, my
perfect mate; you're the best thing to ever happen to me do you know that? As long
as I live I'll never stop being grateful for your coming into my life and no
matter what this is we'll get through it and we'll be stronger and
better."

I sent up a quick prayer that this would be true. She quieted down
some at the sound of my voice now she just hiccupped in her sleep as she'd
fallen off again. I eased my hand out from the cocoon I'd made with the covers
and reached for my phone on the nightstand again, speaking as softly as
possible so as not to wake her but still enforce steel into my voice I gave my
command.

"Come to the compound now and bring your sidekick with
you."

"Shane.... what?"

"Now!" I cut her father off and hung up. 

"It's okay baby we'll figure it out." I brushed the hair
back off her face and closed my eyes for a moment of peace. 

 Prince of The City

Hoping that she'd stay asleep long enough for me to do what needed
to be done I went to answer the door. I didn't even want to leave her for the
few minutes it took to do that but at least I had the monitor with me.

My first sight of the two reprobates had me seeing red; my first
inclination was to wrap my hands around their fucking throats and squeeze but I
wouldn't get any answers that way so I reeled it in.

"Flanagan, what the fuck?"

"What happened to her mother?" No preambles; I didn't
have time for that shit, I wanted answers, needed them in fact and now. I saw
the faltered steps in both men; the little sideways look that was fleeting but
not quick enough for me to miss.

They brushed pass me to get inside still not uttering a word;
that's not how this was going to go down; I've been pretty lenient with these
fuckers up 'til now but I had no problem showing them why I was who I am for so
long, family or not, when it comes to her all fucking bets are off; and that
bullshit I witnessed this morning had to be dealt with. I needed to get to the
bottom of this shit so I could help my girl deal with whatever the fuck was up.
These fucks lied to me, when I told them there was something in her head they
fucking played it down they had to have known that whatever this was, it was
bad.

"Start talking motherfuckers and no beating around the bush
and before you start this is not Shane you're talking to, this is Flanagan,
know the fucking difference."

"Alright calm down young'un."

"Don't fucking tell me to calm the fuck down...just tell me
what I want to know, what happened to her mother and no bullshit."

"You have to give us a minute here son, this isn't easy for
us either you know."

"You're a grown fucking man Rossi, right now I don't give a
shit about you, I do care about the nineteen year old girl that had a fucking
breakdown of monumental proportions not too long ago, now you two think you can
get your heads out of your asses long enough to tell me what the fuck is going
on here?"

"Shit, we knew this day might come Roberto, it was only a
matter of time..."

"Hey Alphonso; don't talk to him, talk to me, what the fuck
happened to her?"

"We'll tell you son, but I'm gonna need a drink for
this." He went to the sidebar and poured a stiff scotch while Rossi found
a seat and sat with his head in his hands. All these theatrics just made me
nervous as fuck I mean what could make two die-hard mobsters this shaken? Rossi
looked like he was barely gonna make it and Alphonso wasn't faring much better.

I watched them with bated breath knowing that whatever was coming
next was going to be some horrible shit and that somehow at the end of it, I
was going to have to pick up the pieces for my girl; I didn't mind that so much
I just wanted to know what the fuck so I could get started fixing shit.

"Arianna saw her mother die."

Well fuck me; Rossi divulged that information in the voice of a
man who'd aged fifty years since he came through my door ten minutes ago. I
hardened myself enough to withstand what was coming next; I didn't utter a word
just waited for one or the other to pick up the story because I knew there had
to be more.

"She was only three, at first we thought she'd forgotten that
night, but as time went on she started acting strange though she'd never
mention it, just little things that told us it was affecting her ya know?"

"Like what?"

"You know, she'd act out, have these horrible tantrums,
sometimes she'd scream and scream and when we asked her what the problem was
she'd say nothing or she didn't remember. We messed around with taking her to a
shrink for a while but in the end it was too risky. Back then there were things
going on that we couldn't afford to let out of our circle, who knew what she
would share with a stranger and what he might do with it? We couldn't trust our
own guys at the time and there was no way we could risk an unknown, you know
the deal, it was a fucked up time." 

I wanted to be mad at him but the reality was in our line of
business there were sometimes hard choices that had to me made, it was for
shit, but I understood.

"What did she see?"

Rossi put up his hand as if to ward me off, his other hand went to
his stomach as if in pain. If he was having a hard time telling the rest of the
story I could only imagine what she'd been living with in her head all these
years.

"It's okay Roberto I'll tell him the rest."

"She saw her mother lose her head."

Alphonso said it quickly like he had to get the taste out of his
mouth, the words slammed into my body like blows from a two by four. Now it all
made sense, a lot of things fell into place for me with that one sentence.

"Did you get them?"

They knew what I meant by that, I think I already knew the answer
though and if I was right I was gonna have to change my stance on some things;
looked like I wasn't quite through being me yet, fuck.

"The one who called the hit yeah; but not the one who carried
it out, we got most of the men who were there that night, but the one they
named for the actual beheading we were never able to find him; he flew the
coop, like the fucking wind, trust me we never stopped looking but we thought
after all this time she'd forgotten."

"She hasn't forgotten shit, she's been eliminating him her
whole fucking life, do you not notice a pattern in her kills; she always goes
for the head."

Fuck me, I have a pregnant vigilante on my hands, she's not gonna
stop, not because she doesn't want to, or because she wants to disobey me, but
because it's damn near impossible for her to stop, until I find this fucker and
take his ass out she's always going to be avenging her mother one way or the
other.

I left them both sitting there with their memories and went to
check on her; she was sound asleep, curled up around my pillow. Toeing off my
shoes I climbed in behind her and drew her tight against me. Feeling the warmth
of her body I inhaled her amazing scent.

"I'll find him for you mouth, I'll get you his fucking
head."

I'm not sure if she heard me or not, but I'd be damned if her body
didn't relax against mine.